For now I'm just going to get a few spare parts that seem to need replacing on all helis: like the frame (skids), canopy , tail, etc.

Most common damage so far are the landing skids, and motor. Buy a couple of main motors as backups because they're the first ones to break... actually, you may burn up all three motors before you need to replace anything else.

My canopy looks like crap, but still serviceable. It may look fine in the pic, but the underside is shredded. The thing abut it is that the holes for the legs have corners. And everytime you hit something, the legs push against it and a split eventually forms. Use a soldering iron to burn a hole at the tip of the split and it should stop it from spreading further. Then use tape to hold it together on the inside of the canopy. Even after several hard crashes, the nose is still dent free, the only damage you really can get is the split that grows from those leg holes.

You can see a hole in my lower canopy in the pic

That's a pretty big split that started out as a little one, i burned a hole in front of it and it hasn't gotten any bigger since.

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How do you guys like the Devo 7? It's only $138 for the Genius CP w/ the Devo 7. I wanted to get a Devo so I could buy some other BNFs. I know the Devo 7 is the cheapest in that line of TXs, is it any good? Or am I going to want to upgrade it soon? I saw it stores 15 models, so I figured I would be all set with Walkera stuff.

It's good enough. Everything you need to fly is in it. And even has a seventh channel for you to attach gadgets to (bomb bay doors, camera switches, fireworks launchers, provided the heli's big enough to carry them). The only bad part about it is the interface. The thing is a PITA to learn and setup, especially for someone that's never flown a heli before.

I got impatient waiting for the parts from eHirobo so i went over to the local hobby shop (yes, the same guys i bought the 450parts that didn't fit) and bought a tail motor from them. The thing about it tho is that the tail blade was split in two so they game me another tail blade. I did wonder what kind of force it had been subjected to have a tail blade break.

So i changed the tail section, plugged in the batteries, and powered it up. The heli started spinning uncontrollably, it seems the tail motor wasn't spinning. So powered it down while i tried to figure out what was going on.

Then all of a sudden thick smoke started coming out of the canopy and it was lighting up. The thing actually caught fire!

Aw come on!!! Seriously??? Can anybody explain what happened? What was the part that burned up???

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I got impatient waiting for the parts from eHirobo so i went over to the local hobby shop (yes, the same guys i bought the 450parts that didn't fit) and bought a tail motor from them. The thing about it tho is that the tail blade was split in two so they game me another tail blade. I did wonder what kind of force it had been subjected to have a tail blade break.

So i changed the tail section, plugged in the batteries, and powered it up. The heli started spinning uncontrollably, it seems the tail motor wasn't spinning. So powered it down while i tried to figure out what was going on.

Then all of a sudden thick smoke started coming out of the canopy and it was lighting up. The thing actually caught fire!

Aw come on!!! Seriously??? Can anybody explain what happened? What was the part that burned up???

I got impatient waiting for the parts from eHirobo so i went over to the local hobby shop (yes, the same guys i bought the 450parts that didn't fit) and bought a tail motor from them. The thing about it tho is that the tail blade was split in two so they game me another tail blade. I did wonder what kind of force it had been subjected to have a tail blade break.

So i changed the tail section, plugged in the batteries, and powered it up. The heli started spinning uncontrollably, it seems the tail motor wasn't spinning. So powered it down while i tried to figure out what was going on.

Then all of a sudden thick smoke started coming out of the canopy and it was lighting up. The thing actually caught fire!

Aw come on!!! Seriously??? Can anybody explain what happened? What was the part that burned up???

I got impatient waiting for the parts from eHirobo so i went over to the local hobby shop (yes, the same guys i bought the 450parts that didn't fit) and bought a tail motor from them. The thing about it tho is that the tail blade was split in two so they game me another tail blade. I did wonder what kind of force it had been subjected to have a tail blade break.

So i changed the tail section, plugged in the batteries, and powered it up. The heli started spinning uncontrollably, it seems the tail motor wasn't spinning. So powered it down while i tried to figure out what was going on.

Then all of a sudden thick smoke started coming out of the canopy and it was lighting up. The thing actually caught fire!

Aw come on!!! Seriously??? Can anybody explain what happened? What was the part that burned up???

Sounds from your description and looks from the photo as though the tail motor had a direct short in it that fried the FET on the PCB.

Impatience can be expensive...learn from your mistakes. I paid a lot for my formal education, but my informal education (life) has cost me some but I've learned much more in a practical way from the informal side of the equation.

The price of a new board is about the same as a brand new BNF. I did find someone selling his. Apparently, it's his 2nd GeniusCP but has barely flown it because he's switched over to mini and master CPs. I'm inclined to believe him because the landing vertical fin, skids, and canopy, especially the part where the front legs go through the canopy, look shiny.

The thing is, when he was flying it, it flew straight, but when i bound it to my TX, it kept tilting left. When i checked his TX, the settings on it looked like it was setup by someone used to flying a larger heli... he apparently had little experience with programmable transmitters and had someone else set it up. Oh well.

This morning i finally figured out why it kept going left (A lot more than my first one to account for the tail rotor). It seems the servo horns weren't level, as in i had to unscrew one of the horns and move it one notch down. Blades weren't level, some issue with blade tracking, and the frame was shaking (I now understand what you guys meant by checking by holding by the canopy mounts and running the motor at low speed, my first GCP was smooth compared to this).

I spent the entire morning tuning the heli and i think i got most of the vibration out. I can't believe it went out of the factory like this.

Still couldn't figure out why it's shaking. It's apparently so bad that it's messing up the gyro and causing the tail to wobble. Blade tracking is a knife edge, a slight grinding on one side when i spin it but that can be attributed to a worn main gear, my old one felt grinded all around it.

I finally just disconnected the servo links and swapped the entire head, swash, shaft and main gear with the one from the burned out heli. Shakes are now gone, tail is solid, and flies really smooth. How do i check which part has a problem?